Why mental health in young women is more at risk in the 21st century

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (S1) ◽  
pp. S7-S7
Author(s):  
H. Herrman

The mental health of women and girls is endangered when they experience violence and gender-based discrimination, including poor access to education and lack of autonomy in the family and broader community. The conditions of conflict and poverty that foster violence against women, including systematic sexual violence, are growing across some world regions including parts of Africa and Asia, even while women are becoming more empowered in others. The prevalence of abuse of women at home appears to be high across the regions, and the widespread nature of other forms of violence such as genital mutilation and trafficking is increasingly recognised.The psychological consequences of violence increase the risk of mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety, including the risk of these conditions in the perinatal period. The services provided for women with mental ill health in primary health care, maternal and child health services, community mental health services or hospital settings do not in many places respond adequately to their needs. The inadequacies in response can reproduce or amplify the difficulties and injustices that women face in their lives, especially maltreatment as girls and intimate partner violence as adults.The World Psychiatric Association aims to increase awareness of the need for improved mental health of women and girls worldwide, especially in settings of disadvantage, conflict and adversity. It is also aiming to work in partnership with other health and non-health organisations to develop a platform for action to respond to the need – for health promotion, risk reduction and access to prevention and treatment services.Disclosure of interestThe author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. S8-S9
Author(s):  
M. Amering

AimUnderstand the needs of women users of mental health services and their families and discuss consequences.MethodNon-systematic review of concepts and data regarding the needs of women users of mental health services and their families.Resultsnequity and inefficiency of mental health resources affect men and women all around the globe. Some important mental health needs as well as barriers to care are gender-specific. Women have specific needs in specific phases of life, e.g. the perinatal period, as well as specific risk factors, e.g. interpersonal violence and sexual abuse. Developments of women only services as well as the implementation of gender-specific approaches in routine care are underway and need to be evaluated, amended and expanded. Training as well as research requirements are numerous and urgent. Family carers are an essential mental health resource. A majority is female with significant unmet needs. Family advocacy in mental health is prominently supported by female activists as is the psychiatric user movement. Because of the cumulation and the interaction of gender-based and other forms of discrimination, legislations such as those following the UN-Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities include specific provisions for women and girls with psychosocial disabilities.ConclusionsMental health stigma and discrimination interact with gender inequality and the discrimination of women and girls to their mental health detriment. Clinical and scientific responsibilities in mental health essentially include gender-specific attention to the needs of women and girls and their families.Disclosure of interestThe author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 395-402
Author(s):  
Kyeong Seon Yun ◽  
Bong-Goon Moon ◽  
Miae Park ◽  
Seong-Ju Kim ◽  
Yunmi Shin ◽  
...  

Objective Early detection and proper management of mental illness can help to prevent severe deterioration. However, with limited financial and human resources of community mental health services, it is not practical to carry out all conventional screening tools simultaneously. In this study, we aimed to develop and validate a brief but comprehensive screening questionnaire for four common mental illnesses of the elderly.Methods The brief screening for four mental illnesses of elderly (BS4MI-elderly) is a 14-item binary response questionnaire that covers dementia, depressive disorder, sleep disorder, and hwa-byung. To test validity, we compared conventional scale scores for three groups of participants classified using the BS4MI-elderly. The sensitivity, specificity, predictive value of positive test, likelihood ratio of positive test and internal consistency of the BS4MI-elderly were assessed. Finally, a correlation analysis between the BS4MI-elderly and general mental health scales was conducted.Results A total of 254 participants aged over 65 years were recruited. The BS4MI-elderly showed moderate to high sensitivity for the test that distinguishes the normal group from the risk and disorder groups (dementia: 0.61, depressive disorder: 0.88, sleep disorder: 0.85, hwa-byung: 0.94) and high specificity for the test that distinguishes the disorder group from the normal and risk groups (dementia: 0.91, depressive disorder: 0.93, hwa-byung: 0.84, sleep disorder: 0.84). The BS4MI-elderly also exhibited good internal consistency and significant correlations with general mental health scales.Conclusion The BS4MI-elderly, a brief but comprehensive screening tool, could be a useful instrument for screening the elderly in community mental health services.


BMC Medicine ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jelena Jankovic ◽  
Jake Parsons ◽  
Nikolina Jovanović ◽  
Giles Berrisford ◽  
Alex Copello ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Barriers to accessing mental health care during pregnancy and the first postnatal year (perinatal period) seem to be greater for ethnic minority women; however, there is no reliable large-scale data about their actual use of mental health services during this period. Our study aims to explore access rates to secondary mental health services, including involuntary admissions to psychiatric inpatient care and patterns of engagement for ethnic minority women aged 18+ who gave birth in 2017 in England, UK. Methods Two datasets from the National Commissioning Data Repository, the Acute Inpatient Dataset and Mental Health Services Dataset, were linked. Datasets covering the full perinatal period for each woman were included. Rates were standardised by age and deprivation. Results Out of 615,092 women who gave birth in England in 2017, 22,073 (3.5%) started a contact with mental health services during the perinatal period. In total, 713 (3.2%) were admitted to inpatient care, and 282 (39.5%) involuntarily. Ethnicity data was available for 98% of the sample. Black African, Asian and White Other women had significantly lower access to community mental health services and higher percentages of involuntary admissions than White British women. Black African, Asian and White Other women had a higher number of attended community contacts and fewer non-attendances/cancellations of appointments than White British women. Conclusion Access to mental health services during the perinatal period varies significantly between women from different ethnic groups. Access to community mental health services should be facilitated for Black African, Asian and White Other women during the perinatal period, which may reduce rates of involuntary hospital admissions for these groups. The pattern of engagement with community services for women from these ethnicities indicates that access appears to be a problem rather than utilisation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Maone ◽  
Barbara D'Avanzo ◽  
Federico Russo ◽  
Rita Maria Esposito ◽  
Bozena Lucyna Goldos ◽  
...  

Background: Among Family-Based Services for the treatment of severe mental illnesses, multi-family models gained particular attention, given the potential usefulness of mutual feed-back, motivation and encouragement among families.Methods: The Psychodynamic Multi-Family Group Model has been proposed since 1997 in some Community Mental Health Services in Rome. Since 2011 multifamily groups are held weekly in all the six Districts of the Department of Mental Health that serves a population of more than one million people, and data have been collected since 2015 in three Districts. A total of 794 individuals attended the meetings in the period 2015–2019.Results: Eighty-six percent of those who started, attended more than one meeting. The mean of occurrences of participation among patients was 18.6, among mothers 25.6 and among fathers 21.6. The 794 participants belonged to 439 family units, among which 180 comprised only the patient, 76 only parent(s) or other close person(s), and 183 comprised parent(s) or close person(s) with the patient. Patients participating alone were older than those of families who participated as a whole. Families including the patient showed the longest duration of attendance and the highest prevalence of a diagnosis of schizophrenia in the index patient. Families who had been attending the multifamily groups since a long time maintained a high rate of attendance.Conclusions: Multifamily groups represent a setting where patients can meet with other people and professionals in a free still structured way, and with not strictly therapeutic objectives. The high number of patients who attended alone suggests that such participation corresponds to a self-perceived need of open and free setting facilitating sharing of problems and solutions. The good tenure of the interventions, the high participation, and the feasibility in the long-term suggest that multifamily groups can be implemented in the mental health services of a large city, are sustainable over many years, and can represent a valuable resource for many patients and families.


2012 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 180-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Slade

SummaryRoutine use of Health of the Nation Outcome Scales (HoNOS) has not produced the anticipated benefits for people using mental health services. Four HoNOS-specific reasons for this are: low relevance to clinical decision-making; not reflecting service user priorities; being staff-rated; and having a focus on deficits. More generally, the imposition of a centrally chosen measure on the mental health system leads to a clash of cultures, since frontline workers do not need a standardised measure to treat individuals. A better approach might be to use research from the emerging academic discipline of implementation science to inform the routine use of a standardised measure that is chosen by the people who will use it and hence is more concordant with existing clinical processes. This is illustrated using a case study of successful implementation of the Camberwell Assessment of Need (CAN) in community mental health services across Ontario, Canada.


2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Cohen ◽  
Julian Eaton ◽  
Birgit Radtke ◽  
Christina George ◽  
Bro Manuel ◽  
...  

1998 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 98-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Lora ◽  
Gabriella Bai ◽  
Callisto Bravi ◽  
Roberto Bezzi ◽  
Francesco Bulgarini ◽  
...  

RIASSUNTOScopo — L'obiettivo di questo studio è quello di descrivere i patterns di utilizzazione dei pazienti in contatto con 5 Unità Operative di Psichiatria lombarde secondo quattro classi: alti utilizzatori lungoassistiti, alti utilizzatori non lungoassistiti, lungoassistiti non alti utilizzatori, non alti utilizzatori non lungoassistiti. Disegno — Studio descrittivo a partire dai dati ricavati dal Sistema Informativo Psichiatrico regionale; è stata analizzata una coorte di 5.670 pazienti nell'ambito della prevalenza annua relativa all'anno 1994. Setting — 5 Unità Operative di Psichiatria della Regione Lombardia (Merate, Treviglio, Crema, Desio, Castano Primo), con una popolazione complessiva di 610.184 residenti di eta superiore ai 14 anni. Principali misure utilizzate — Sono state prese in considerazione alcune variabili sociodemografiche e cliniche relative ai pazienti; oltre un'analisi descrittiva dei quattro patterns, è stata effettuata una analisi logistica multinomiale. Risultari — Gli alti utilizzatori lungoassistiti (AU-LA), pur rappresentando solo il 5.3% del campione (4.9 casi per 10.000 residenti di età superiore ai 14 anni), consumano il 60% delle risorse espresse in SCS; solo la condizione di separato, divorziato, vedovo è predittiva per tale pattern. Gli alti utilizzatori non lungoassistiti (AU-non LA) costituiscono 1.2% del campione (1.1 casi per 10.000) ed utilizzano il 7.8% del SCS. Variabili predittrici di tale pattern sono l'eta compresa tra i 15-44 anni, l'assenza di un'attivita lavorativa e di un partner, la diagnosi di un disturbo mentale grave e la presenza di contatti con i servizi psichiatrici negli anni 1985-1989. I lungoassistiti non alti utilizzatori (LA-non AU) rappresentano il 23.4% della coorte (21.6 casi per 10.000) e vengono al secondo posto per consumo dirisorse (18.1% del SCS). Sono variabili predittive: l'età compresa tra i 15-44 anni, il vivere da solo, l'assenza di un'attività lavorativa e di un partner, la diagnosi di un disturbo mentale grave e la presenza di contatti con i servizi psichiatrici antecedenti al 1990. I pazienti non lungoassistiti non alti utilizzatori (non LA-non AU), pur rappresentando il 70.1% della coorte (64.8 casi per 10.000), consumano solo il 13.8% del SCS. Conclusioni — I dati mostrano che complessivamente l'attivita delle UOP è orientata nei confronti dei pazienti piu gravi, anche se sono rilevabili marcate differenze tra le UOP lombarde rispetto all'utilizzazione dei servizi. È confermata l'utilita di un Sistema Informativo a diffusione regionale che permetta di monitorare l'evoluzione nel tempo e nel territorio regionale dei patterns di utilizzazione.


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